Chapter 4

"I told you Julian was playing dead and mind games with me!" Dad crowed happily.

Mom looked up, a glimmer of hope suddenly igniting in her previously despairing eyes.

"He moved? He really moved?" She crawled over on her hands and knees, desperate to see the screen.

This time, Dad didn't push her away, but smugly let her look.

"Take a good look! He's still moving! And very fast, at that," he said, pointing at the red dot slowly crawling across the screen. "This brat must've realized I wasn't messing around and got scared I'd actually cut his allowance.

"So, he finally straightened up. Spineless little thing. Needs a fire lit under him or he won't move."

Mom stared at the red dot, tears streaming down her face again. But this time they were tears of joy.

"I'm just glad he's moving." She slumped to the floor, pressing her palms together. "Heaven be praised, heaven be praised!"

Dad's relatives also breathed sighs of relief all around.

Trying to smooth things over, Aunt Geraldine smiled and said, "What did I tell you? Julian might be a bit frail, but he's still a good kid. Sharon, you simply worry too much. Trevor's his father, after all. It's not like he'd actually hurt him."

Uncle Arnold raised his glass as well. "She's right. It's all a false alarm. Come on, everyone. Drink up!"

The tension in the room dissolved instantly, as if the explosive confrontation moments ago had been nothing more than a brief interruption.

Only I, floating in mid-air, felt a bone-chilling cold as I watched the moving red dot.

That wasn't me climbing, but rather a wolf.

Before I lost consciousness, I heard the howl of a wolf. The sound was very close, just behind the rocks.

The hungry wolf must've been dragging my corpse across the snow, leaving a long trail of blood. It had clamped its jaws around my leg, pulling me back to its den as its Christmas feast.

Every flicker of that red dot was another jolt to my broken body.

Dad looked down at Mom condescendingly.

"See that? You almost ruined everything! If you'd actually called the police just now, and they went up the mountain only to see him climbing away energetically, I'd never live it down.

"I'd probably be charged with filing a false report to boot!" He crouched down, jabbing his finger against Mom's forehead again and again. "You jinx! You nearly destroyed the most important transformation of his life.

"You would've made him hate you forever."

Instead of arguing, Mom just stared blankly at the phone. "As long as he's alive, even if he hates me, that's fine."

Dad stood up and brushed off his pants. "Alright, stop with the melodrama. Since you're already here, why don't you join us for dinner and watch Julian conquer that snowy mountain?

"See for yourself how brilliant he can be once he's out of that coddling environment of yours."

He forcibly pulled Mom up and pushed her into an empty chair.

Trembling and huddling in the corner, Mom didn't dare to look away from the phone screen for a single second.

The red dot moved again, then once more fell still. The wolf must've been tired and stopped to eat.

Dad, however, couldn't care less. He sent another voice message, "Now that you're moving, keep climbing! Stop dawdling like a sissy. Your speed just now was decent, so maintain it. Reach the summit by midnight, and I'll give you a thousand dollars."

That thousand dollars was a reward to him, but to me, it was blood money.

Too bad I'd never be able to collect it.

I stared at Dad's alcohol-flushed face and the way his mouth moved, each opening releasing a blast of foul, boozy breath.

"Everyone, raise your glasses! Let's drink to Julian's successful training! And to our family having a real man! Cheers!"

The clinking of glasses was crisp and pleasant to the ear.

I watched Mom curled up in the oversized chair.

The dishes and utensils before her were completely untouched. Only her swollen, bloodshot eyes were fixed on the red dot that represented my life.

She was praying for it to move again.